Felicitation for young cricketers

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen Kandy Sports Correspondent

A grand felicitation ceremony has been organised by the Kandurata Provincial Cricket Development Centre to felicitate the young cricketers from the Kandy District who have brought honour to the district by winning championship titles in the tournaments conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket at a ceremony to be held at the Pallekelle Cricket Stadium in Pallekelle today - Friday July 24th at 4 p.m.

The Operations Manager of the Kandurata Cricket Development of Sri Lanka Cricket C. Philomen Raj in an interview said that the junior cricketers from the Kandy District have excelled in the under 15 and under 19 cricket tournaments conducted by the Sri Lanka Cricket and both have remained unbeaten and their performances need to be recognised to encourage them to greater deeds in the future.

Philomen Raj himself a former St. Athony's College and Combined Colleges said that the Kandy District Under 15 team won the Prima Under-15 cricket championship with a fine eight wicket win in the finals. There are some promising cricketers in Sadun Weerakkody, Manoj Sarathchandra, Niroshan Dickwella, Yohan Woods, Tharaka Jayasinghe, Thushan Hettige, Kanishka Ranaraja just to name a few who have excelled for the team.

The Kandy District under 19 team became joint champions at the all island inter-district limited over cricket tournament organised by Sri Lanka Cricket with the finals being washed off due to rain. They also became runners up at the first ever twenty/20 cricket tournament organised by Sirasa TV.

He said that both teams were knitted into a fighting outfit by the Provincial Cricket coach Sunil Fernando with the assistance of the district cricket coaches Chaminda Kodikara and Bernard Perera and Sunil Fernando is no stranger to the cricket field as he gave the worlds best off spinner Muthiah Muralitharan to Sri Lanka, having identified the talents of this bowler from a fast bowler to a spinner.

The ceremony today includes taking in procession to the venue the under 19 and under 15 cricketers with bats of honour. They will be also presented with medals and certificates.

Also gracing the occasion will be Manager Coaching of Sri Lanka Cricket Malcolm Perera who himself is a product of Kandy and has done a lot for the promotion of cricket not only in the Kandy District but in the entire Cental Province, President of Kandy District CA Tilina Tennakoon, Honorary Secreary Kandy District CA Roland Perera, Principals of schools in Kandy and the Kandy district cricket coaches.

Thus it is going to be a great day for cricketers in the Kandy District and they will be rewarded for their performances.